Stay in charge - tips for effective battery care

As we all know everybody needs a little TLC from time to time, and your materials handling equipment is no different. Along with ensuring that your equipment is regularly serviced and Thorough Examination inspections are conducted, any batteries and chargers which power your equipment also need maintenance. So, we consulted some of our technical team and product managers in order to provide you with some basic battery care tips.

First and foremost make sure that you stick to the manufacturer’s guidelines, especially when your battery is new. A new battery has to be used and re-charged (known as a battery cycle) a certain number of times before being topped up. This differs with batteries from different suppliers so make sure you read the information that comes with your shiny new battery very carefully.

To get the most effective performance out of your battery, make sure you use most of its power before you recharge it. Generally, they say you should use a battery until there is 20% or less of its charge remaining because charging it any sooner could cause damage. This may not always be possible depending on your operation, but try to follow this as much as possible and make sure your team is aware of this and you have a recharging process in place. If you would like to monitor your battery performance, this is part of our I_Site truck management system.

Now we’re talking about charging your battery, you should allow sufficient time for your battery to charge fully and not use it until it has finished on its charger. Lead acid batteries cannot be charged for short periods (known as opportunity charging) as it will damage the battery. Once your battery is fully charged, you should allow it to finish gassing and fully cool down before using it again. If you don’t have long periods available to charge your battery, speak to your salesperson about battery changing and the different options available.

We don’t want to bamboozle you with too much technical stuff at this early stage. So we’re only going to talk about using and recharging your battery today. Keep your eyes out for our later blog post on topping up your batteries.

If you want to know more about battery maintenance or sign up to our new battery care service, call 0370 850 1402